In no particular order:
1. Practice shooting from the sticks as well as offhand. Stay off the bench.
2. Have a good low power scope that will withstand recoil and bouncing around in a safari car. An illuminated reticle is helpful. Reliable QD mounts are a good idea in case you have to use the iron sights.
3. Personally, after having them rivet and bend, I avoid Federal Trophy Bonded Sledgehammer solids.
4. Listen to your PH and do what he says.
5. Practice working the action so you don't short stroke.
6. Stay in good physical condition.
7. Don't wear sunglasses. They make it more difficult to spot the animal. Clear or pale yellow work best for me.
8. Don't get fixated on "record book horns". A wily old dagga boy, to me, is a better trophy that a less mature bull with a big spread. In buff hunting, it's the quality of the hunt and the challenges involved rather than the measurement that counts most.
9. Relax and go with the flow. There will be good days and bad days.
10. Invest in a good rescue service, such as Global rescue. Just in case....
Excellent advice! I'll add a couple comments...
1. Practice with your rifle, in field positions. I did most of my pre-buff hunt practice sessions at specific ranges - 10, 25, 40, 60, 100, and 150 yards, mostly from offhand and no more than 25% from sticks. Practice sessions will be longer, more productive, and less painful if you load or buy some reduced recoil practice ammo for your rifle. I put 500+ rounds through my 375 H&H in the 2 months before my hunt, about 80% of which was with reduced recoil loads. Practice both with your scope and with iron sights. Lots of practice means using your rifle in the field will be second nature.
2. Quick detach mounts make sense. Better yet, get 2 sets of mounts and a backup scope. In my practice sessions, I sighted in for my practice load with my backup Nikon Monarch scope, and sighted the Trijicon 1-4X for my hunting load, and used both in each practice session. This breeds familiarity with dismounting your scope, which can be very handy in the bush.
3. No comment
4. Agreed. My PH strongly recommended 300 gr A-frames, among other things. He did not steer me wrong in anything.
5. Practice sessions should include dry-fire and dummy round manipulation. For every one of those near-600 rounds I fired at the range, I put 3-4 dummy rounds thru my rifle's action at home while watching TV.
6. You can't stay in good condition if you're not in good condition to start with. Begin your conditioning program early enough that you don't hurt yourself trying to "get in shape" for your hunt. Walking is best, because walking is what you'll be doing in Africa hunting buff. Walk with a light pack and a dummy rifle (or a real rifle if you live where doing so won't get you stopped by the police), and for goodness sake don't take new boots to Africa. Walk in the boots you're going to hunt in.
7. Eye protection is smart. I wore polycarbonate shooting glasses each day on my buff hunt. You'll be in dense brush, so risk of eye injury is high. A corneal abrasion is a temporary thing, but the 1-2 days you have to stay in camp with eyepatches on is 1-2 days you won't be hunting.
8. Agreed. On my (first) buffalo hunt, getting a good trophy bull was my goal... but i wasn't excessively picky. An old bull, preferably the dominant old bull in a herd of dagga boys, was my primary objective. I hoped for a decent spread, 36" plus, but mature hard bosses were a must. My PH helped me set my priorities here, and many of our 24HCF guys weighed in as well. Good advice: By setting a reasonable goal, I was able to get my first buffalo with a reasonable effort. Holding out for a 40+ inch bull on your first try might mean eating tag soup!
9. Good advice.
10. I bought Global Rescue. Didn't need it.
A buffalo hunt is a DG hunt. In my opinion, it requires an outlay of effort (and cash!) well above that required for plains game. If you plan accordingly, it will be richly rewarding, and quite possibly the hunt of a lifetime.
